In the end, though, it was a combination of the same old problems — the inability of the Detroit Tigers’ newly-remodeled bullpen to protect a lead, and the inability of the offense to pad it — as they lost again in extra innings, 8-3 in 10, to the Kansas City Royals.

Phil Coke walked three of the five batters he faced in the 10th inning, forcing in the go-ahead run with a free pass to catcher George Kottaras.

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Alex Gordon would pad the lead with his first career grand slam, a 443-foot blast to dead center field off Darin Downs, allowing the Royals (11-8) to split the rain-shortened two-game series, and hold on to first place in the American League Central division.

“It got away a little bit at the end. We lost the strike zone a little bit, which hurt us. And then, of course, the big blow. A combination of that, and we only got five hits. (James) Shields was really good, (Justin) Verlander was really good. It was a good matchup. We just couldn’t get one across when we needed it,” Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. “Like I said, we lost the strike zone there at the end of the game. ... Conditions were a little rough, rain — not to make excuses, obviously — but we just didn’t throw the ball over the plate. Killed us.”

The Tigers (10-10) fall to 1-3 in extra-inning games this year.

It might have been a different story, if not for the blister.

It was a match-up of two staff aces — Verlander against the Royals’ offseason trade acquisition, the guy nicknamed “Big Game James” in his Tampa Bay days — cut short when Verlander developed a blister near the nail on the thumb of his pitching hand.

“It was a good match-up, and if we don’t have the blister, we probably get him through one more inning. Maybe even two. Those things you can’t help. But, once again, we got five hits. Everybody focuses on things (like the bullpen), but we got five hits today. And that’s fine, good pitcher and everything. But we played quite a few innings where we couldn’t really get anything going,” Leyland said.

“(Shields is) a good pitcher. The game was right there, tooth and nail, with two really good pitchers going at it. They had a few more hits, but some of them were little choppers, infield hits that got their hit total up there a little better until the end. At the end, Cokie just lost control of the strike zone but ... I mean, we got a 3-2 lead going into the eighth.

“We just couldn’t add on any runs.”

That left it up to the short-handed bullpen that was missing newly-signed closer Jose Valverde and Al Alburquerque, forcing Leyland to replace Verlander with fireballing phenom Bruce Rondon, called up on Tuesday.

“It was great, it was a dream come true, but in (my) mind was to throw a strike,” said the fireballing 22-year-old rookie, who ended up allowing the game-tying run in his big-league debut.

“You always like them to get their feet wet with not everything on the line, but you can’t help. If they’re up here, I’m going to pitch them. That simple. If they’re up here, they’ve gotta pitch. We don’t bring guys up here to go on road trips, visit different cities. Sightseeing for different guys. That’s not what we do,” Leyland said. “If you’re here, you gotta pitch. You would have liked to have broken him in under a little different conditions, but it just wasn’t going to be that way today, because we were a little short.”

Billy Butler singled, then his pinch runner, Jarrod Dyson stole second, went to third on a groundout, and scored on Lorenzo Cain’s sacrifice fly to center field, making it 3-3 in the eighth.

“It happens. It happens to anybody. Unfortunately, it happened to him making his Major League debut,” Victor Martinez said. “It won’t be the first time, it won’t be the last.”

Coke could say the same. After having only issued one (intentional) walk in eight previous appearances, the lefty couldn’t find the zone, throwing strikes on just eight of his 33 pitches.

He took over for Rondon in the ninth, and got out of a two-on, two-out jam, but fell apart in the top of the 10th. He gave up a one-out double to Lorenzo Cain, and followed it up with a walk of Mike Moustakas. A wild pitch moved both up into scoring position, necessitating an intentional walk to Jeff Francoeur to load the bases. Coke would walk George Kottaras to force in the go-ahead run.

Darin Downs came in with the bases loaded, and got one out before Gordon blew the game open with a blast into the center field shrubs.

The Tigers scored early, when Austin Jackson snapped an 0-for-26 streak with a leadoff double. He scored on an RBI single by Miguel Cabrera, who came in hitting .500 (13-for-26) off Shields.

Verlander knows the feeling of having to face his own personal Kryptonite, in Butler.

Butler tied it up at 1-1 in the third inning, when Alcides Escobar reached on a swinging bunt and stole second, setting up the Royals DH’s RBI single. A two-out single in the fifth lifted Butler to .411 lifetime (23-for-55) against Verlander, the highest average of any player with 30 or more at-bats against the Tigers ace. It also gave him the most hits (23) off JV, one more than Joe Mauer.

“Everybody pitcher’s got one guy they struggle with, and he’s one of those guys,” Verlander said.

The Tigers’ second run came on a Prince Fielder walk in the fourth, two wild pitches and a sacrifice fly. Torii Hunter’s RBI single in the fifth made it a 3-2 game in the fifth.

But it wasn’t enough of a padding for the bullpen, and the Tigers — who, according to STATS LLC, are batting .198 with 16 total runs in their last seven games — couldn’t add more.

“I don’t think you’ll ever have an offense going on a torrid pace for 162 games. There’s a lot of ups and downs. We just need to make sure that we stay up as much as we can,” Martinez said. “We’re not doing so good, but we just need to keep battling.”

Matthew B. Mowery covers the Tigers for Digital First Media. Read his “Out of Left Field” blog at opoutofleftfield.blogspot.com.